Pranam
arning: Combination of Omega-3s in Popular Supplements May Blunt Heart
Benefits
TOPICS:Cardiology <https://scitechdaily.com/tag/cardiology/>Cholesterol
<https://scitechdaily.com/tag/cholesterol/>Heart
<https://scitechdaily.com/tag/heart/>Intermountain Medical Center
<https://scitechdaily.com/tag/intermountain-medical-center/>Nutrition
<https://scitechdaily.com/tag/nutrition/>

By INTERMOUNTAIN MEDICAL CENTER MAY 17, 2021

[image: Omega-3 Fish Oil Supplements]

Doctors often recommend Omega-3s to help patients lower their cholesterol
and improve heart health. Those Omega-3s can come from fatty fish like
salmon and mackerel, or supplements that often contain a combination of the
acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

Now, new research from the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute in Salt
Lake City finds that higher EPA blood levels alone lowered the risk of
major cardiac events and death in patients, while DHA blunted the
cardiovascular benefits of EPA. Higher DHA levels at any level of EPA,
worsened health outcomes.

Results of the Intermountain study, which examined nearly 1,000 patients
over a 10-year-period, will be presented virtually at the 2021 American
College of Cardiology’s Scientific Session on Monday, May 17.

“The advice to take Omega-3s for the good of your heart is pervasive, but
previous studies have shown that science doesn’t really back this up for
every single omega-3,” said Viet T. Le, MPAS, PA, researcher and
cardiovascular physician assistant at the Intermountain Heart Institute and
principal investigator of the study. “Our findings show that not all
Omega-3s are alike, and that EPA and DHA combined together, as they often
are in supplements, may void the benefits that patients and their doctors
hope to achieve.”

In this study, Intermountain researchers used the INSPIRE registry, an
Intermountain Healthcare database started in 1993 that has more than 35,000
blood samples from nearly 25,000 patients.

Through INSPIRE, researchers identified 987 patients who underwent their
first documented coronary angiographic study at Intermountain Healthcare
between 1994 and 2012. From those blood samples, the circulating levels of
EPA and DHA in their blood was measured. Researchers then tracked those
patients for 10 years, looking for major cardiac adverse events, which
included heart attack, stroke, heart failure requiring hospitalization or
death.

They found that patients with the highest levels of EPA had reduced risk of
major heart events. When evaluating how EPA and DHA affect one another,
they found that higher DHA blunts the benefit of EPA. In particular, they
also found that those patients with higher levels of DHA than EPA, were
more at risk for heart problems.

Le said that these results raise further concerns about the use of combined
EPA/DHA, particularly through supplements.

“Based on these and other findings, we can still tell our patients to eat
Omega-3 rich foods, but we should not be recommending them in pill form as
supplements or even as combined (EPA + DHA) prescription products,” he
said. “Our data adds further strength to the findings of the recent
REDUCE-IT (2018) study that EPA-only prescription products reduce heart
disease events.”

Meeting: American College of Cardiology 2021

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Thatha_Patty" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to [email protected].
To view this discussion on the web visit 
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZor5D7OwBNkroAL%3DUSnpf%3DQFwV4oBoZhtZAbCN1y0ZKYbg%40mail.gmail.com.

Reply via email to